Not applicable.
Craftspeople from carpenters to construction workers are required to accurately orient surfaces or edges at various angles to one another. Advances in design have introduced the need for orienting surfaces at more than just right angles to one another and to do so with great accuracy. Economic pressures have further introduced the need to perform angle measurements more rapidly and consistently while using cheaper, and often relatively unskilled, labor.
Prior attempts to address these needs are inadequate to the task. Though various methods and apparatuses currently exist to facilitate the measurement of angles, they generally only measure right angles and must be implemented by more than one person. Nor may they be easily adapted for work on a range of scales (e.g., from use in making furniture to use in siting the foundations of large buildings, for example).
Information relevant to attempts to address these problems can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,010,007; 1,323,742; 1,458,046; 2,174,440; 2,718,063; 3,191,308; 3,269,015; 3,568,319; 3,668,781; 3,760,766; 4,566,198; 4,575,943; 5,357,683, and 6,209,213. However, each one of these references suffers from one or more of the following disadvantages: (a) it only measures right angles; (b) it requires more than one person to operate; (c) it cannot be easily adapted for use on different scales; (d) it requires a user to make calculations; (e) it involves devices that are bulky and difficult to transport and to store; (f) it comprises numerous moving parts prone to breakage and dysfunction; (g) it is prone to error as angles are measured on too small a scale to ensure minimal error; and, (h) for any number of the previous reasons, it is unusable by relatively unskilled labor.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an apparatus and method of employing same that enables a single user to easily and accurately mark both right and oblique angles and that may be adapted for use on a variety of scales.
The present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for employing same that satisfies these needs whereby the apparatus may be used by a single unskilled user to mark a reference line defining an angle to a baseline simply by measuring the baseline to a specified length and attaching the apparatus thereto, thus avoiding the need to directly measure the desired angle, minimizing error by restricting measurements to the length of the baseline alone and enabling the user to mark the angle to any size greater than 0 and less than 180 degrees.
The apparatus for marking an angle relative to a baseline comprises: (a) first and second elongate arms, the second arm having a length greater than that of the first arm, each of the arms having a proximal end and an opposed distal end, the first and second arms being pivotally joined one to the other at their proximal ends by a connecting means having a centrally located aperture; and, (b) first and second anchoring means, the first anchoring means being attached to the distal end of the first arm for anchoring the first arm to a first marker, the first marker marking one end of the baseline located on a work surface, the second anchoring means being attached to the distal end of the second arm for anchoring the second arm to a second marker marking the other end of the baseline to a specified baseline length, the first marker thereby marking the vertex of an inner angle formed by the baseline and a reference line extending from the vertex to a center of the aperture when the first and second arms are fully extended, the baseline length determining the size of the inner angle formed by the reference and baselines, and also defining the size of an outer angle sharing the same vertex and formed by an extension of the baseline therefrom and the reference line.
The apparatus may thus be used by a single user to mark the reference line to a desired angle to the baseline, simply by marking both ends of the baseline to a specified length apart and attaching the apparatus to each end thereof, thus avoiding the need to directly measure the desired angle, minimizing error by restricting measurements to the length of the baseline alone and enabling the user to mark the inner or outer angle to any size greater than 0 and less than 180 degrees.
In another version, a method is provided for using the apparatus described above.
These and other features and aspects of the apparatus and method will become better understood with reference to the following description, accompanying drawings, and appended claims.
Several objects and advantages of the present invention are: (a) to provide an apparatus that may be used by a single unskilled user to mark a reference line to a desired angle to a baseline, simply by marking the baseline to a specified length and attaching the apparatus thereto, thus avoiding the need to directly measure the desired angle, minimizing error by restricting measurements to the length of the baseline alone and enabling the user to mark the angle to any size greater than 0 and less than 180 degrees; (b) to provide an apparatus with few parts to minimize the probability of a malfunction; (c) to provide an apparatus that can be adapted by means of changing its relative size (and varying the baseline lengths required to mark angles of various sizes accordingly) to suit its purpose for jobs of greatly differing scales such as positioning foundations of a building, cutting wood surfaces in the manufacture of furniture, establishing vertical tab lines when shingling, and squaring decks, sidewalks or fencing.
The reader is advised that this summary is not meant to be exhaustive. Further features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description, accompanying drawings and appended claims. In particular, though the invention is described in its application to construction and carpentry, it may also be applied to any type of craft requiring that angles be marked.